Intel narrowly misses Wall Street estimate, sheds 3%

The PC slump is taking its toll on the big boys. On Wednesday Intel reported the fourth consecutive quarter of declining sales and it also announced a pessimistic outlook for the rest of the year. As a result shares of Intel plunged 3 percent in after-hours trading.

The weak results come as no surprise, as the PC market has been in trouble for several quarters. However, Intel’s numbers were still slightly below Wall Street forecasts, which might explain the chipmakers negative outlooks for Q3 and Q4. The fact that Intel has a shiny new CEO might have something to do with it as well. Brian Krzanich might need a bit more breathing room, that’s all.

Looking at the numbers, it is evident that PC sales are very slow indeed. Sales of PC chips fell by 7.5 percent and let’s not forget that Intel introduced Haswell last quarter – and probably shipped a ton of them to OEMs over the past couple of months. As a result, net income fell to $2 billion or 39 cents per share, which is down 29 percent year-on-year. Sales fell 5 percent to $12.8 billion, missing the analysts’ consensus by just $100 million. As far as the current quarter goes, Intel says its sales will be in the $13 billion to $14 billion range, a bit lower than what Wall Street was expecting.

The year as a whole will likely end flat, which isn’t too bad given the state of the PC market. Krzanich took the helm in the middle of the worst slump the industry has seen in decades and he will be facing a lot of pressure to turn the ship around. However, there’s really not much he can do at this point. Intel will just have to ride it out like the rest of us.